This invention relates to golf training aids, specifically to a golf swing training aid. Moreover, this invention relates to a hinged practice golf club that indicates to the golfer exactly how to use his hands, wrists and forearms in the golf swing to effect what has been popularly called the release of the club through the ball. In addition, it will give the golfer unmistakable three dimensional feedback as to the correct positioning of the golf shaft thruout the swing.
Through the years there have been many swing aids with a hinged design of the fork type being their main feature. Koch U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,585 and the others of his ilk basically tried to keep the golf club on the correct swing plane through the use of their clubs and the hinge would pivot or break if the club were to be taken back to fast and or off of the correct plane. With Reineking U.S. Pat. No. 2,497,237 and Koch U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,585 you could actually safely hit balls because they all had their hinges pivoting on a 90 degree angle relative to the reference plane of the club face. The reference plane of the club face is defined as the plane in which the club face of an iron having a 0 degree loft lies.
In most of these designs, the hinge is of a fork type; one hinge member has a pair of arms forming a fork, the other hinge member has a single arm (or tongue) which is received within the fork, and a pivot pin passes transversely through all three arms. These were easily constructed because the only stress vectors at the 90 degree angle were on the pivot pin and not on the forked sides.
All of these forked hinge designs would fail if they were turned to a 0 degree angle relative to the reference plane of the 0 degree clubhead because there is no reinforcement at the bottom of the fork. In other words, when the golfer would swing and impact a ball or the earth at clubhead speeds in the neighborhood of 100 mph, the leverage exerted upon the inner sides of the fork member by the tongue member would cause the forked members to bend or fail. This failure would present a hazard to the user and any onlookers, as the clubhead could become separated from the shaft and fly through the air.
Lyford U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,035 was obviously aware of this forked hinge limitation and has marketed his invention with the club face coated with a rubber coating so that you could not hit balls with it.
Tiller U.S. Pat. No. 3,606,340 was the exception as his fork design was set at a reference angle of 0 degrees. Obviously the drawings in Tiller U.S. Pat. No. 3,606,340 preclude hitting balls with the instrument as the forked hinge design shown would not hold up to the constant pounding of balls and earth that it alludes to. Also, if the hinge is to mirror the positions that the hands, wrists and forearms get into, then the hinged portion should not move both upwardly and downwardly as the wrists never deviate downwardly from the position of address as taken in the full golf swing. What is desirable in such a hinge is that it only hinge upwardly. Also there is no evidence that Tiller U.S. Pat. No. 3,606,340 ever was commercialized.
Unfortunately, to be correct, the angle for the hinge must be 0 degree angle relative to the reference plane of the 0 degree clubhead, if it is to mirror and give exact, user understandable feedback as to the correct action of the hand, wrists and forearms in the golf swing. If the hinge is to exactly mirror the wrists in the full swing, then it must also only hinge upwardly, as that is how the wrists work. It also must be at this angle if you are to give exact, unmistakable three dimensional feedback as to where the shaft is to be thruout the swing in order to effect the correct swing plane.
So basically there have been no hinged golf training aids that pivoted at a 0 degree angle relative to the reference plane of the 0 degree clubhead, and with a safe construction that you could actually hit balls without presenting a safety hazard to the user and onlookers, and further, that looked exactly like and acted exactly like a conventional golf club in every way except for the hinge. Also there have been no hinged golf training clubs that would give unmistakable positive feedback to the user both as how to use the hands, wrists and forearms in the golf swing to effect what has been popularly called the release of the club through the ball, and that would also give the user exact, unmistakable three dimensional feedback as to where the shaft is to be thruout the swing in order to effect the correct swing.
It would also be helpful to have the additional feedback of the actual ball flight as you performed the correct motion.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a training club that can be used anywhere with or without a golf ball and that can actually be taken out on the course and be used for playing shots if desired.
Other objects will become apparent as the specification proceeds.